THE TRANSFORMATION OF AN INSANE WOMAN
Helen was originally a Filipino Catholic, I brought her in from the streets of L Angeles. She was very smart, about the same age as I was then, although she had children, but they all lived in other states.
Due to a serious illness, her mind became deranged, she often quarreled with her husband, so much so that her husband could not tolerate her, took on another woman
and cast her out from their home. So she became homeless, living on the streets.
During that time, I would go to the House of the Homeless once a week to preach. That was the ministry that I had for 12 years. There were a lot of single mothers in that area, and Helen was one of them. Since her mind was deranged, she would keep on muttering to herself. I let her do some cleaning works in our Halfway House, she was very responsible and did the assigned tasks extremely well, including cleaning up the living room, bathroom and kitchen. The purpose of my bringing her to our Half-way House was for her to regain her senses, to become normal again. For me, it was a great challenge, it was no easy job to convert her, but with God, nothing is impossible, for she was precious in His eyes.
She had this mentality that she was a good-for-nothing, hopeless woman. Although she was a Catholic, but she had no foundation whatsoever in the Word of God, so everyday I would study the Bible with her, lead her to know the truth, and gradually to have a deeper knowledge of the Lord.
I found out that she was not stupid, neither out of her mind. She was just being oppressed and abused by her husband because he had another woman, since she was unable to resolve her marriage problem, she felt so helpless and frustrated, I tried to counseled and consoled her. Her mental problem was serious, all day long, she would keep on muttering and talking to herself even while at work. Whenever I found her in such state, I would yelled at her to stop, stared at her, held her hand and sang the Hallelujah song to her, I taught her this song and she learned it by heart. From then on, when she felt like talking to herself, she would switch to singing this song, sometimes even sing it all day long non-stop. I was comforted knowing that she had changed to a certain degree.
Her heart was softened and soothed by this beautiful song, the transformation of her character and nature came by gradually. There were also at our home some who were not in their right minds, I would often gathered them to pray, thus she was able to be delivered out of the darkness of her life by the Word of God. She was no longer living in self-pity but had became as precious vessel of God.
God’s will and His way are different from ours, because of the oppression of the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms against us, we have to stand firm, be watchful and alert, and put on the full armor of God. That’s how I taught Helen, I told her to get up early in the morning to read the Scripture and pray, this is, in a way, putting on the full armor of God, and she humbly obeyed.
I also told her the promise of God in the Bible that we are precious in His sight, the apple of His eye. She was happy and contented in our home, enjoying God’s love and warmth, she also went with us downtown to minister to the homeless.
She used her gift of cooking huge pots of food in serving the homeless, she was proud to be thus used by the Lord. God is just and fair, He gave various gifts to different people, she also had her share of gift. And so her faith greatly increased, no longer feeling discouraged, she had plan for the future. She told me she wanted to go back to her husband. She had determined to minister to her husband no matter how mean he would treat her, she decided to change her husband with her love.
After living in our Halfway House for over a year, Helen committed her broken family in God’s hand and ran back to her husband. She believed that as long as she is in the kingdom of God, she would be able to help those who need help.
She told me one day the Lord will fulfill her wish. She declared repeatedly that she would fight her low self-esteem. She trusted in God to restore her family and to regain her husband. Now if one would ask me if it is possible for an insane person to regain his senses, I would say it’s 100% possible, provided we trust in God, nothing is impossible.
After Helen got healed mentally and spiritually, she did not take pride on herself but became humble to the point of loving the unlovable, including her husband. Even though her husband abused her, she learned not to fight with him, instead prayed for him and silently bore the cross. She became the perfect image of a good wife and mother.
Later her husband’s heart softened, and he was touched by how his wife was transformed by the power of God from an insane woman to become such a gentle, loving wife. Therefore he decided to untangle himself from the other woman who had been ensnaring him for so long, and came back to his wife. At present this couple is serving God together, they are faithfully ministering in a church in the Philippines. I hope many problematic families would be able to learn from Helen’s struggle and deliverance.